Charismatic maestro connects

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This article was published 28/03/2025 (367 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As a blast of late-season snow nearly ground “Winterpeg” to a halt, internationally renowned guest conductor Leslie Suganandarajah warmed up more than 1,000 intrepid music lovers with his charismatic stage presence and fresh approach as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra presented Beethoven’s Fourth, the final offering of its Thursday Classics series.

The concert also marked the Sri Lanka-born artist’s North American debut, with the 80-minute program (no intermission) comprised of three lesser-performed works spanning nearly 140 years.

Suganandarajah, a natural communicator, has served as music director for the Salzburg Landestheater since 2019. His extensive background in opera infuses his helming of “absolute” or non-representational music with the passion and drama worthy of the theatrical stage, with many enthralling moments having listeners on the edges of their seats.

His informal, down-to-earth manner established a palpable rapport with listeners and musicians alike. And in more than 20 years reviewing the WSO for this newspaper, this writer has never seen a maestro finish conducting a high-energy piece with a “phew!” — or at least vocalized that sentiment — nor punched out musical accents with both arms like a prizefighter that elicited gasps of delight from the crowd.

The program opened with the Manitoba première of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor, Op. 33, composed at age 23 for England’s annual Three Choirs Festival. It allowed Coleridge-Taylor, a young Black artist living in a predominantly white society in 1898, to gain a foothold in the compositional world, as noted during Suganandarajah’s introductory remarks.

This unabashedly romantic ear-pleaser brims with lush harmonies and rhapsodic themes brought to life by the conductor, who guided the musicians with expansive sweeps of his arms evoking the grace of a ballet dancer.

Several of the strings’s more lyrical passages might have been sweeter, while at other times, their repeated, syncopated figures suffered from heavy-handedness. Still, this charmer is one to be heard again — and soon — delivered with plenty of forward thrust that compelled.

Another treat, Walter Kaufmann’s Six Indian Miniatures offers a musical melting pot reflecting his 12 years living in India after fleeing the Nazis from his native Germany. It’s one of life’s great imponderables why this highly evocative piece penned by the WSO’s inaugural conductor (1948-56) had never been performed on this stage before.

The well-crafted, textural piece flows as a journey through Indian vistas, inspired by Kaufmann’s intensive study of traditional ragas akin to scales in Western classical music. A particular highlight became the second miniature featuring a dark solo delivered in hushed tones by concertmaster Gwen Hoebig, in turn bleeding into a dialogue between her violin, oboe and clarinet.

Kudos to principal flutist Jan Kocman for his spot-on solo against the plucked tones of the harp, creating a web of mesmerizing suspended beauty.

Other high points were the penultimate movement that highlighted principal clarinettist Micah Heilbrunn’s jagged, angular theme rising over the bass drum and basses’ pizzicati, and the finale propelled by repetitive dance-like rhythms with the xylophone adding further dimension.

Last but not least, was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60. Once hailed by Leonard Bernstein as “a surprise package,” it continues to live sandwiched between the composer’s better known third, a.k.a. the Eroica, that marked the beginning of his middle period, and fifth, colloquially known as the Fate symphony.

Suganandarajah added his own descriptors, introducing the 35-minute work as one of “Beethoven’s wittiest symphonies he’s ever written,” known for its “life-affirming exuberance.”

After the first movement’s delicate pianissimo opening, the players launched into its primary theme with gusto, with the maestro holding a taut rein throughout.

The subsequent Adagio featured more fine solo passages by the winds, as well as the timpani’s powerful, thundering extended roll — a hallmark of this piece. The Menuetto e Trio, ostensibly a scherzo in court dancer’s clothes, saw the musicians bolting through its syncopated opening theme, ultimately leading to an all-guns-blazing Allegro ma non troppo that capped the work as a perpetuum mobile and earned a rousing standing ovation.

But the evening also included another surprise right at the top of the show. Without fanfare, the entire stage full of musicians rose to its feet for a particularly stirring performance of O Canada, quickly joined by the audience, with many proudly belting out our national anthem, including its loudest line “True north strong and free,” that needed no introduction at all.

holly.harris@shaw.ca